"Send a Supreme God as strong as me, or stronger, to 'contain' me on the battlefield when your army reaches the Imperial Capital. If I hold that Supreme God occupied, even briefly, I can consider my promise to Asher fulfilled. That's enough."
Haru studied her for a moment. It was a reasonable arrangement. Clean, actually.
"There is one thing." He said, with a slight smile, "You fulfill your promise and recover your treasure. My Great Aetherium spends a Supreme God to 'contain' you, reducing our attacking strength. What do I get from this arrangement?"
Pandora looked at him. Then, with perfect composure: "C'mon Brother-in-law, won't you do just this much for me?"
Haru nearly came off the throne. The ancient Goddess of Light, who had cultivated for millions of years, had just deployed the most effective negotiating tactic he had ever encountered: complete unexpectedness. He had not been prepared for this. At all.
Amelie stared, "Brother-in-law? What brother-in-law?"
Pandora glanced at Haru with a small smile, then turned to Amelie, "Our good sister, the Goddess of Fate Svetlana, is very close to His Majesty Kazehaya."
Amelie's expression went through several phases. Svetlana, one of the first Ancient Gods, millions of years of cultivation, had never taken a partner in all that time. The idea that she had found someone was already astonishing. That it was Haru was something else entirely.
"In order to be with His Majesty Kazehaya." Pandora continued, "Svetlana even gave up the position of the Endless Continent's Goddess of Fate. She has found a successor."
Amelie took a slow breath. She believed it. Pandora wouldn't fabricate something like this, but she couldn't quite settle into the belief. The Almighty Lord she had pledged herself to was, in secret, also her brother-in-law. She wasn't sure how she felt about that.
The 'brother-in-law' had caught Haru completely off guard, and it showed. He had been preparing to negotiate something tangible out of Pandora like Divine Crystals, perhaps, or some Divine Artifact, when she deployed the one thing he hadn't anticipated. A single word, said sweetly, that made every calculated response disappear.
Whether on Earth or in the Endless Continent, no one had ever called him brother-in-law before. He hadn't been ready for it. He found he still wasn't.
Pandora, reading the room, smiled, "If brother-in-law needs anything from me, I will never refuse."
Haru waved it off. For Svetlana's sake, he wasn't going to squeeze his future wife's sister for resources. He let it go entirely.
"Amelie." He said, "Go to the distant battlefield and cooperate with the Imperial Army against the Light Empire."
He turned to Pandora, "When my forces besiege the Imperial Capital, I'll send Yvonne as your opponent. She is at the late-stage just like you. Fighting her to a draw will be more than enough to fulfill your promise to Asher."
"She will hold back." He added, "You just need to perform convincingly in front of Asher. Don't actually hurt each other."
Pandora nodded, "I know her record. She suppressed the Lich Lord Zakaria, then she combined with Nova to hold back both Mordra and Micteya simultaneously. Her strength is beyond doubt."
"But brother-in-law, we're at the same level. Are you suggesting I'm not her equal?"
"Your strength is slightly inferior to hers."
Pandora looked at him.
"If you don't believe it." Haru said mildly, "You're welcome to try sparring with her."
She was genuinely competitive enough to consider it for a moment. Both were late-stage Supreme Goddesses, why would there be a meaningful gap? Even accounting for the Angel bloodline's advantages, at the Supreme God Tier, the racial differences didn't express themselves as dramatically as at lower levels. She had convinced herself they were roughly evenly matched.
Then Haru told her that Yvonne had two Divine Laws, which allowed her to control the 'Thunder of Creation'.
Pandora went quiet. A God who mastered two law sources was categorically stronger than someone who mastered only one. Everyone knew this, and Pandora held only one, the Law of Light. The gap was real and she recognized it immediately, because she was confident, not delusional.
"I see." She said simply, "Then I won't push for a real fight, performing is enough."
Haru nodded. He had no particular desire to see Pandora hurt. She was, in a certain meaningful sense, his sister-in-law, even if the four sisters weren't connected by blood. Millions of years of genuine closeness produced something more binding than blood in most cases. He was willing to accommodate her.
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